San Francisco/Toronto: Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada's second-largest lender, agreed to buy three Florida-based financial institutions as those and five other failures brought the number of 2010 closures to 50.
Toronto-Dominion added $3.1 billion (Dh11.4 billion) in deposits to the $117 billion it holds in two other US lenders, according to a company statement. The lender picked up 69 branches in Friday's purchases, bringing its total in Florida to 100.
"These were all in locations that were in our master plan," for new branches, Toronto-Dominion Chief Executive Officer Edmund Clark said on Friday in a telephone interview. "It would have taken us five years to have built that many branches, so it just speeds up our development."
Lenders are collapsing amid losses on residential and commercial real estate loans which pushed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp's (FDIC) list of "problem" banks to the highest level since 1992 in the fourth quarter.
Banks in Michigan, Massachusetts, California and Washington state were also closed Friday by US and state regulators, who named the FDIC as receiver, according to statements on the agency's website.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said on February 23 that the pace of failures may exceed last year's total of 140.
Toronto-Dominion, which has about 1,000 US branches, has spent more than $15 billion over five years buying Portland, Maine-based TD Banknorth and Cherry Hill, New Jersey-based Commerce Bancorp.
The Toronto-based lender acquired the Florida assets and deposits of Clement-based AmericanFirst Bank, First Federal Bank of North Florida in Palatka and Riverside National Bank of Florida of Fort Pierce.
People's United
People's United Financial Inc., which has $21.6 billion in assets, purchased Butler Bank of Lowell, Massachusetts, to expand its footprint, according to a company statement. People's CEO Philip Sherringham said in July that the bank had been in contact with the FDIC on buying a failed lender.
Regulators also closed Innovative Bank, of Oakland, California, and sold its operations to Los Angeles-based Center Bank, the FDIC said.
Tamalpais Bank of San Rafael, California, was also shuttered and its operations were turned over to San Francisco-based Union Bank, which paid a two per cent premium to acquire $487.6 million in deposits. City Bank of Lynnwood, Washington was closed by regulators who moved its deposits and the majority of the assets to Whidbey Island Bank. Coupeville, Washington-based Whidbey paid a one percent premium to the FDIC to assume $1.02 billion in deposits.
State regulators and the FDIC were unable to find a buyer for Lakeside Community Bank, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, which was closed and deposits paid out, the FDIC said.
